Body Central, which had 265 stores in 28 states, announced Jan. 9 that it would liquidate. Wet Seal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Jan. 15. The company said it would close 338 stores, about two-thirds of its locations. | Jan. 21, 2015»Read Full Blog Post(3)

Board Game Barrister, a game, toy and puzzle retailer, said Wednesday it will be moving out of Southridge Mall and into the Greenfield Towne Center.

The retailer said the new location, at 6120 W Layton Ave., has more than 5,400 square feet and will give it great visibility and freeway access from the intersection at S. 60th St. and W. Layton Ave. The Greenfield location is expected to be open in May.

The Boerke Co.’s Kristian Sydow and Nate Powers represented Board Game Barrister in the lease transaction.

Board Game Barrister also said Wednesday that its Bayshore Town Center store will move to larger space within the Glendale mall sometime this spring. | April 3, 2013(1)

Aldo Shoes, Shoe Dept. Encore and Pink will be opening stores at Greendale's Southridge Mall later this year, mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. announced Wednesday.

Aldo Shoes, which sells men’s and women's footwear, leather goods and accessories, will be located on the upper level near Macy’s, and will open in spring.

Shoe Dept. Encore will open its first Milwaukee-area store on the lower level near Macy’s this summer. It sells shoes for adults and children.

Pink, a division of Victoria’s Secret, sells women's sleepwear, swim wear and sport wear. It will open in fall on the upper level in center court.

Also, New York & Co., located on the upper level near Sear’s, will remodel, and reopen with a new look this summer. Victoria’s Secret, located on the lower level near Macy’s, will also remodel, and reopen in fall.

Southridge has added several new retailers over the past year or so in connection with the opening of Macy's department store last March.

More new tenant announcements are expected later this year, said Mary Mokwa, Southridge manager. | Feb. 20, 2013(1)

Greendale officials have approved a plan to provide $2 million to Bon-Ton Stores Inc. to help finance the $10.5 million renovation of the company's Southridge Mall Boston Store.

The Village Board, on Tuesday night, and the Joint Review Board, on Wednesday, approved spending the money through a tax incremental financing district.

Under that plan, property taxes generated by the improved portion of the Boston Store will pay back the money to the village. That debt will be an estimated $3.2 million, including interest and other costs. | Sept. 22, 2011»Read Full Blog Post(10)

Southridge Mall is looking for a new manager, just six months after the shopping center appointed Patrick Basche to the post.

Les Morris, spokesman for Simon Property Group, said that Basche has left the company. Basche, who formerly managed Simon's Bay Park Square in Green Bay, was named to manage Southridge in December, following the departure of Mary Wenger.

Morris declined to comment on the Basche's departure but said Simon was actively seeking a replacement. The staffing change comes at a time when Southridge is undergoing a multimillion dollar renovation that includes the addition Macy's as a new department store anchor at the long-vacant space at the south end of the center. | Aug. 2, 2011(4)

Macy's Inc. announced this morning that the company will open a store next spring at Southridge Mall, in the former Younker's space at the south end of the center.

An announcement from the mall's operator, Simon Properties Inc. of Indianapolis, will come later this morning in a news conference at Southridge.

I first broke the story on Macy's in November, after the Village of Greendale announced a tax incremental financing district to help pay for improvements to the mall. The new store will take 150,000 square feet, and will employ 160 people. | May 23, 2011»Read Full Blog Post(38)

Several area malls were to close early Tuesday and planned to open late on Wednesday because of the storm.

Bayshore Town Center, the Shops of Grand Avenue, Mayfair and Southridge malls said they would close at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Brookfield Square was expected to follow suit but had not yet confirmed the closing with its corporate headquarters.

Regency Mall in Racine was to close at 3 p.m. Tuesday and will be closed on Wednesday. Regency will reopen at 10 a.m. Thursday, but the Sears store there will maintain regular hours. | Feb. 1, 2011»Read Full Blog Post

Patrick Basche, manager at Bay Park Square Mall in Green Bay, has been named manager at Southridge Mall in Greendale.

Basche is in transition now, running both malls until a replacement for him is named in Green Bay. Both malls are operated by Simon Properties Inc. He succeeds Mary Wenger at Southridge. | Dec. 21, 2010(9)

Kohl's will begin work in January on a remodeling project at its Southridge Mall store in Greendale.

Kohl's vice president of public relations Vicki Shamion said the facelift includes updating departments throughout the store, with the biggest changes planned for the kids, home and intimates departments. The store also will get new fitting rooms and lounge areas, new customer service areas at both entrances and updated checkout areas.

The Southridge store is among 100 that the company plans to renovate in 2011. Work is expected to be complete at the Southridge location by March, and the store will remain open throughout the project. | Dec. 16, 2010»Read Full Blog Post(12)

Southridge Mall in Greendale will host Movies Under the Stars from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11 in the center's southeast parking.

The family-friendly event aims to re-create the outdoor movie experience of the 1950s and 1960s, with a 40-foot screen set up in the parking lot. More than 3,000 people attended last year's outdoor movie event. | Sept. 10, 2010(2)

Michael Prokop, a jeweler at Fred Meyer for 20 years, has opened his own store in the former Whitehall Jeweler space at Southridge Mall. Prokop's is on the second floor, center court.

Other recent openings at Southridge include a Best Buy cell phone store on the first floor, near center court, and a Toys R Us Express store on the second level in the south wing of the center. | Aug. 10, 2010(1)

Southridge Mall will participate in the 2nd annual Mom's Nite Out on Thursday, May 6, with free events, food tastings and live demonstrations from 6 to 9 p.m.

Guests are encouraged to bring items to donate to Sojourner Family Peace Center, which assists victims of domestic violence. Simon Property Group, which owns Southridge, is hosting Mom's Night Out events at its malls around the country.

I'd never heard of this event until the press release showed up in my mailbox last week. An Internet search turned up several Mom's Night Out web sites, with one listing this year as the second annual event, another saying this is the fourth year, for an event that happened in March. | May 3, 2010(1)

Quality Candy has been ordered by a federal bankruptcy judge to ask its landlords to reduce the rent on the company's stores and distribution center.

Judge Margaret Dee McGarity filed the order Thursday in Federal Court in Milwaukee. According to the order, Quality's March rent bill for its stores totals $63,270. Quality can't pay any rent without notifying Harris Bank. If Harris objects, the company will need a court order to make the payment.

I wrote about the rents in an earlier blog post. Monthly mall rents range from $20,791 for a large store at Southridge to just $758 for the store at Grand Avenue. Quality pays no base rent at the Grand Avenue, just 5% of gross sales. | Feb. 26, 2010(2)

Southridge mall will make use of some of the vacant Linens 'n Things space with a new entertainment venue: glow-in-the-dark mini golf.

Glow Golf has locations at more than a dozen malls around the country, including at East Towne in Madison.

Southridge has added a few new short-term lease tenants in the past few months, including Inca Gifts, an import shop that offers sweaters from Peru and Ecuador, T-shirts, jewelry and other hand-made items. Other recent additions are Direct Art Work, which features sports prints; and The Swag Fit, with jeans, T-shirts and clothing for young men.

Rocky Rococo will open in the food court in March, and Waldenbooks has closed, as part of a previously-announced national shutdown. | Feb. 2, 2010(16)

The California real estate firm that put Southridge mall on a "dead mall" list has removed it, after hearing from the mall's owner, Simon Property Group.

The list ran along with a story in the Wall Street Journal May 22. The newspaper put the catchy title on the list and used it to illustrate their article about malls in danger of failing as retail tenants close their doors. Malls on the list supposedly had sales per square foot of less than $250.

Using that criteria, Southridge should not have been on the list, because sales at the mall are well above $250 per square foot, according to Simon spokesman Les Morris. | June 2, 2009»Read Full Blog Post(3)

Tradehome shoes, a regional chain based in Cottage Grove, Minn., will open its first store in the Milwaukee area in mid-June at Southridge mall.

Tradehome carries mid-to-high-end brands of casual and athletic shoes for the family, including Asics, Nike, Dansko, Merrel, Ecco, Mephisto, Birkenstock and others. The company is privately-owned and operates 117 stores, mostly in small communities in the Midwest.

Tradehome has nine stores in Wisconsin, according to Jeff Dankwardt, manager of the new store at Southridge, located just south of the mall's center court.

The stores are full-service, and offer free shoe shines and repairs on shoes purchased at the store, Dankwardt said. | May 22, 2009

Retail Business News

Business

Having gotten millions of women out of jeans and into yoga pants, the Wilson family now wants to drape the world in $80 T-shirts.

Or at least part of the world, the part inhabited by young professionals living what the Wilsons call "full-contact" lives — up at 6, off to jobs where they're already making their mark, getting in a good workout, meeting friends, moving through the city and wanting luxury clothing that meets the needs of their smart, successful lifestyles.

Milwaukee, the Wilsons believe, is fertile ground for this market, so on Thursday, in a 1,300-square foot space in the Historic Third Ward, they'll open the 26th location of Kit and Ace, a barely-year-old clothing chain that has generated buzz far beyond its still-modest size.(6)